An announcement

Hi all... 

This time my blog is not about crafting.. something that I expect will be equally as important, (if not more so)  in my life! My new baby Grand-daughter!! I am so thrilled to announce that she was born on Sunday 22nd of March at 12.08am. 

Baby Amber weighed in at a healthy 8lbs and is already the apple of my eye! No doubt she will be the centre of many, many, many layouts over the coming years so I thought you should get used to her already.. so here she is.. INTRODUCING AMBER!

Please forgive me for sharing on other craft blogs... I wanted to reach as many people as possible with my happy news.

Elaine

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CKCB LO no 2 and a mammoth catch up

Morning all

Well, despite best intentions, I haven't got right back into blogging immediately or am even using up much of my kit yet.. but I have managed to do some crafting anyway.. so this blog is all about what I have been up to!

So I bring you a mixed bag.... a 2nd LO made from my Counterfeit Kit and a little altered heart and even an altered iPhone box that I really enjoyed doing and another couple of LO's too. 

   

I am starting here with my CKCB LO... Life.. a series of moments. I used the basis of my March kit for this and cut the main title on my  New, shiny, treasured, lovely, lovely NEW Cameo!!!! So spoilt..but, as you may be able to tell, I love it!

It is another LO that I did for my sisters 60th album.. this is here holding my Mums hand when she was about 3.. long before I was born (there's 6 years between us)

My uncle is in the naval uniform at the back and the photo was taken at my Great Aunts wedding in 1958. 

The next 'treasure' I'm bringing you is an altered iPhone box that I have made for a design scheme for the newly launch blog 'The Great Scheme of Things' for which I am now on the design team. Each week we will have a new colour scheme for inspiration and you can use it to kick start your creativity too! 

So here it is... 

and below is a close up of the lid

I first gesso'd it all over.. waited for it to dry, then added PVA glue. I then took some dark peach tissue paper and wrinkled it over the box. I then added some lace (top left peeking out from the cluster) and smoothed it down the side too. I then toned it all down with some white acrylic paint and added Paper Artsy grey paint. Whilst it was drying I made the largest flower in the bottom left and then I stuck down the flourish die cut and started building the cluster of embellishments. Once it was all in place I added more paint and topped it all off with a rub of pewter gilding wax on the edges and on the textural elements. Now I just have to decide what to do with it! lol

I've also made this little heart to for an upcoming challenge over at A Great Scheme of Things..we even have our own Facebook page where you can share your creations too! More details on the blog.. here is my heart. Such a  simple thing! I took an MDF heart painted it with gesso and inked it front and back. I then covered it in Pinflair glue and patted sequins all over it and left it to dry. Once dried there were a few loose ones so I covered it all with a heavy layer of PVA glue and added the Prima rose and the leaf die cut, which I inked to match. I then added the hanger and it is ready to add to my Christmas tree in December.. nothing like getting organised! 

I also made this LO too. This is my sisters husband.. they've been married 41 years so I thought he deserved a page in her album too.. so here it is

and.. drum roll.... Finally!! Here is the Mothers day card I made my Mum. 

I do hope you've enjoyed my mammoth catch up.. let me know what your favourite piece is and do pop on over to the new colour scheme blog too! Look forward to seeing you there!

Elaine

Great News.. today is the day!!!

Woo hoo... 

Today is the day we've all been waiting for! Today is the day The Great Scheme of Things colour challenge blog is launched! 

This fab new blog is all about colour... each week we will be launching a new colour scheme to tempt you and we will then invite you to share your creations with us on our new Facebook page. 

Whether you are a knitter, needle-crafter, scrap-booker, mixed media artist, crotchet queen or anything other crafter we would love you to join in! The more the merrier!!! 

Take inspiration from the colours, create your own item, share with us here and the 'schemers' (otherwise known as the design team) will comment on your designs. 

To kick start us off here is the very first colour scheme for your inspiration. 

As you can see it includes green, lime pink and heather.. all very pretty colours! 

If you would like to join in this challenge, please feel free to join us over on our Facebook Page  to show us your creations. If you aren't on FB, please do leave a message here and we will check out your item and leave a comment. 

Speaking on behalf of all the 'schemers' we are really looking forward to having you on board!

Have a great weekend.. and do remember to pop on over to check out our new blog!

Elaine

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Some exciting news!

Morning everyone

Today I am bringing you some rather exciting news!

I have chosen to become a Design Team member of a new blog that launches on Saturday "The Great Scheme of Things" . This is a fab new blog that will be bringing you inspiration in the form of a colour scheme to kick start your ideas. We will be loading a new colour scheme each week and from there we are hoping you will share your creations with us. 

It is a blog where crafters of all interests will be welcome, whatever your discipline is... Needle craft, knitting, crochet, paper crafting, mixed media... Whatever you like doing... or even if you just want to makeover a room or two in your home. 

To start us off there will be a beautiful colour palette of.... Oh no... Wait.. I can't reveal that yet! You'll just have to pop over to our blog on Saturday 14th of March and see for yourself! We can't wait to see your creations.... oh and to give you a little teaser.. here's sneak preview for you.... 

So, hop on over to The Great Scheme of Things  to see what me, and my fellow 'schemers' have been up to...and set yourself a reminder to pop back on Saturday too!

Look forward too seeing you there...

Elaine

Challenge No. 1... border challenge.

Afternoon all

I am really getting back into this blogging thing.. third blog in 2 days! Woo hoo! Here is the LO I made this time

So.. here I am bringing you a LO I made with the border challenge in mind. To start with I decided to use my gelatos that I had incorporated with my kit 'Sunny Spring' for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog . As I only own the two colours you see in the kit, a blue and a coral colour, I decided to mix them together on my craft mat with a water brush to make a muted pink colour. 

I then coloured the whole of the edge of the paper, about 2 inches in from each side to create the border. 

Once it was dried I took a Prima 'Bubbles' stencil and used a Maya mist and misted all over the paper, including the gelato'd area... (is 'gelato'd a word??).






Once I'd got the background finished I had to decide what to do with it... so for that inspiration I chose to use this sketch  from Sues' blog, Me and Mine

As you can see I decided to turn it on its side and work with it from there. After a few false starts that I wasn't really happy with, I've now finished it and am satisfied. Once again I used the Echo Park papers from my kit.



The photos are also of my sister for her album (I did warn you there would be more coming!.. lol) .. so it's another one done. 

It's great to be back!

Elaine
xx

I 

Sweet Natured Child

Morning all...

Well.. I've made a start on using my Sunny Spring, Counterfeit Kit from the CKCB blog.. with this LO.. 'Sweet Natured Child.'

I used a selection of the pink papers from Echo Park 'Love Story' range and some chipboard stickers that I found in my stash after I'd put the kit together that matched the PPs. 

I started off with this sketch that was the March Monthly challenge sketch over on UKS and it grew from there. As the papers had already been selected to go in my kit, it all came together quickly as I didn't have to rummage through a mountain of papers to find some that went together.

Anyway.. the three photos in the LO are of my sister who is going to be 60 in May so I am currently making an album for her. This is about the 10th LO I've made for it so far, and I want to do about 20 so I am sure you will be seeing more of her during this month as I'm running out of time!! lol

Be back soon...

Elaine

xx

March Kit.. 'Sunny Spring'

Hi all 

After a long absence due to two operations and a house move, I'm finally back in the blogging 'saddle' and am delighted to get back into it via the Counterfeit Kit challenge blog. 

To this end I have chosen a kit I have called 'Sunny Spring'. On first inspection of the kit from A Piece of Cake Designs, January Cupcake Kit .. I really noticed a lot of pink and aqua blue.. which as anyone that knows me knows, aqua is one of my favourite scrapbooking colours. 

So I set about choosing my papers based around those colours. On reflection, I can now see that the pink in the kit was actually the background that the kit was displayed on.. rather than it actually containing any pink! Doh! 

However, my decisions were made and I stuck with it. As it's my first kit for a while, I decided not to make it too big and these are the papers I selected.

I added some stickers too and replaced the hot air balloons with some bicycles instead... there is also a page of wood effect paper tucked in there too.

I also picked out a choice of alphas to complement the papers and then added some embellishments and two gelatos to finish it off. 

I have no doubt that I will add card stock and maybe even more embellishments but here it is for now.. 'Sunny Spring'.

It's good to be back... I do hope my followers haven't deserted me in my absence! 

If you want to see what I've been up to in my absence, scroll on to the post below that I did earlier today.

Cheers!

Elaine

x

Whoa...toooooo long since I've blogged!

Hi all... 

I'm so sorry that I have been missing soooooo long! Long story short, I've moved house and gone into rented accommodation while we found the right house to buy. We've been manically house hunting and have now found a lovely little house about 5 miles from where we are renting..not the chocolate box cottage we last had but a lovely house, still in the countryside, so there will be lots more country views to scrap! Add to that that I've also had another operation on my shoulder and you can see why I've been missing! 

Well..... drum roll please.....all that is about to end as today, I hope, to get around to selecting a Counterfeit Kit for their blog so I can 'get back in the saddle' .. And I am so looking forward to it! 

While I've been absent from 'blogland' though I have not been completely lazy and have still managed to create a few LOs and here are just a few to whet your appetite. I'll be back later...but here are some of my recent examples for now. 

This is one that told the story of the photographs, the most recent taken on my sons wedding day in 2013 whilst the top left one was taken in 1989. I laughed so hard when I saw they'd been emulating their old school photo! 

This one was a photo taken at my youngest sons 18th birthday party where his friends held him to a chair and covered him in shaving foam!

And this was one that was taken last month at The Shard in London as a belated Christmas gift to my Mum sitting here (I'm in the red coat)

                                                                         This last one was taken when I was a child with my Mum too.. at a photo booth in Woolworths in Dartford when I was a girl. Just recently mu Mum has featured quite heavily in my LO's as she had been poorly and I thought I might lose her.. luckily she has rallied and it has made me realise what I have got! Expect to see more of her  appearing! lol

Finally.... unusually for me.. I made a card! This one was for my son and daughter in law who are expecting their first child, my first grandchild, later this month. My Daughter in Law wanted a baby 'afternoon tea' instead of the more American custom of a 'shower'.. and as they don't know the sex of their baby I had to make a more neutrally coloured baby card. I chose yellow and lilacs as you can see and I made my very first box card. I was so pleased with the end result, so here it is. 

... here endeth my selection of LO's that I've been making and I hope to be back later with my new kit for the CKCB blog.

Do let me know what you think and to let me know if I've still got some followers left..or if you've all abandoned me while I've been away.. 

Take care all

Elaine

x

CKCB Challenge 1 ... make a Pinterest inspired LO

Morning all..

Welcome to the Counterfeit Kit November Blog Hop. If you have found your way here you will have come via Suzanne's blog.... I'm sure you've been inspired by her creativity. 

For this challenge the idea was to create a layout taken from an idea from the amazing source of ideas that is.... Pinterest.. well this was right up my street! I spend far too long on Pinterest, pinning things and rarely getting around to trying them out...but in this case I was determined to put one of them to good use. 

Here is the idea I decided to try.

I had pinned this tutorial some weeks ago and had intended to try it out quite soon, so this was the prompt I needed. The idea is to use your hot glue gun to create a stencil.. so I chose to write the title of my LO.. in this case the word 'together'..

I tried both clear glue and white glue on a non-stick craft mat, (I personally preferred the clear glue)... and a second glue gun.. the first one was too slow!. It took a bit of practice, as you can see here, but now I have lots of word stencils I can use! Happy days!

This is the LO I made with it... after laying the 'glue word' stencil I spray misted the background card stock with dark pink and pewter and then gently lifted it off to reveal the title.. its the first time I've started with the title in the layout and made the clusters 
around it, so it was quite refreshing. I'm really pleased with the end result and I am 
sure I will be doing this again. 

I hope you've enjoyed my Pinterest inspired LO.... And you enjoy the rest of the hop. If you get lost along the way, here is the list of wonderful entries to find your way again... enjoy! 

CKCB       http://www.counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com

Lisa          http://lisahausmann.blogspot.de

Tina          http://tinasscrapcorner.blogspot.com/

Susanne   http://snapsandsnippets.blogspot.com

Elaine       http://chidkids26.blogspot.co.uk

Julie         http://jsquaredscrapspot.wordpress.com

Janine      http://rachauscratchpad.blogspot.com

Julene      http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com.au

Kate         http://www.kateblue.blogspot.com/

Leslie       http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com

Elaine

x

November kit layout

Hi all... Here is a LO I made with my November kit, Leaf it up to Me!

I chose this sketch here from Stuck?! Blogspot...

 I used three photos in place of the one photo and chose to punch them out hexagonally instead... I then chose several papers from my kit and added some Teresa Collins, Far and Away stickers together with some washi and some small embellishments.

My husband and I went to London to see the poppies at the Tower of London and we spent a really pleasant couple of hours walking around London and seeing the sights too.

Just a quick post from me..but I wanted to share this with you.

Elaine
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Altered/ mixed media items including Christmassey birdhouses

Hey all... Well here I am again.. This time with something quite different for me! 

As some of you may know, I recently went on a scrapbooking retreat weekend.. And two of the ladies there are in to altered items and mixed media art... So they provided us with a giant clothes peg (pin) for us to alter and they also gave all of us a papier mâché initial for each of our names. 

Well... I think it's safe to say.. I'm hooked! I just love taking something quite plain and boring and turning it into something so different from what it started out as. 

Here are those two items.. I'm really pleased with them for a first attempt at altering something! 

The peg (pin) I painted with turquoise chalk paint by Paper Artsy and then whitewashed dry acrylic paint over it. I then stamped some paisley shapes and silver heat embossed it. I added a cluster made of embellishments, which I added on top of a rectangle of plasterers drywall tape as the base. I added Prima paper roses and painted them to co-ordinate. I finished it off with a stick pin with made with beads and crystals.

I am going to use this peg to hold my take away menus... when I move that is.. I live so rurally that no-one delivers to me out here! Lol!

Below is my initial... I covered this with dictionary paper, painted it thinly and then used script texture paste with a mask then rubbed Treasure Gold around the egdes. Again I made a cluster of embellishments and added pearls all over..but I realised it was a bit unbalanced so I added a smaller cluster at the bottom. I'm pleased with the end results. really.. for a first attempt!   

Tell me what you think.. And be honest, I'm learning here so any tips would be gratefully received! 

So ... after I got home, I decided I would make some more things..this time I though I'd make them Christmassey    (as it's that time of year again)... and I was challenged to do so by themirrocrack1d blog here ... and as you probably know by now, I'm always up for a challenge!

so.... First I took these little wooden birdhouses... 

Then I covered them with yellowed pages from an old Thesaurus. I used PVA glue (and got in a right mess too!) to stick it all together. Once dried I took a dry paintbrush and dry brushed acrylic white paint all over them.. After allowing them to dry again, I then added pale gold acrylic paint. 

Once I was satisfied with the finish of them, I stamped small snowflakes on the roof of each and then I added fold embossing powder and heated it. Then I added pearl 'runs' on the top of each roof too. 

 When they were completely dry ( which took some time because of the Viva Decor pearl pen) I then made a decision to add a row of crystals across the ridge of the roof, and added thin lace to the apex of the roof too using a hot glue gun. 

Finally I chose the embellishments for each house, making each slightly different, and I stuck them all on with the same hot glue gun. 

Mainly I used pearls and silk roses, but on a couple I have used old broken jewellery to add a different element. 

Overall I'm very pleased with them, and I have a few new decorations for my tree this year.. So I'm a happy girl. 

So pleased you've joined me in my journey into mixed media art.. Do pop back soon.. You never know what else I may get up to! 

See you soon! 

Elaine

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